Teachers slam Marcos burial plan

Agree with other activists proposal to have ex-dictator interred in 'Heroes Cemetery' a 'mockery'

April 11, 2011

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The Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) has issued a statement supporting human rights groups that condemn a congressional proposal to allow former dictator Ferdinand Marcos to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes’ Cemetery). CEAP said April 9 that legislators who signed the resolution should withdraw their signature because the cemetery is meant for "true heroes." "It was established as a memorial to pay fitting tribute to the gallant Filipino men and women who have brought honor to the country by fighting for freedom and democracy," the CEAP statement read. "How can we bury among our heroes the very man whose dictatorial regime we rejected and ousted? It will be nothing less than a desecration and nullification of the Filipino people’s long struggle and victory for democracy," the group added. CEAP, the largest educational association in the Philippines, said giving a hero’s burial to someone who was responsible for undermining democracy as authoritarian ruler "will make a mockery of the service and sacrifice of Filipino war veterans." "We urge you to understand the true meaning of service, patriotism and heroism. We challenge you to rise to the challenge of statesmanship and not be swayed by facile political collegiality and false notions of ‘reconciliation’ and ‘solidarity’,” CEAP said in its statement. Representative Salvador Escudero, who sponsored the move in Congress, said giving Marcos a hero's burial is meant to be "a magnanimous act of reconciliation which will strengthen the bonds of solidarity among the Filipino people." The body of the late strongman has been lying inside a refrigerated crypt in the Marcos Mausoleum in the northern Philippine province of Ilocos Norte since 1993. Marcos died in exile in the United States in 1989. PM13933.1649

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